[Lordadmiral]

After months of "abusing" my fileserver as HTPC I now decided to build a dedicated machine for that purpose. Cause firstly I want to get that server out of my room as it often fires up all its fans since I've installed Ubuntu, secondly its hardware is old and slow (P4 2,66GHz, GeForce FX5600) and thirdly I want to get rid of my satellite reciever and PS3 and combine Blu-Ray playback, digital HDTV satellite TV and multimedia playback from server shares into one sleek machine.

For that purpose I've selected the following hardware:

Mainboard: Asus E35M1-M Pro with AMD E-350 APU
Graphics: integrated AMD Radeon HD6310
Memory: Kingston Value Ram 4GB DDR3-1066 Kit
System Drive: any cheap 64GB SSD or a small notebook HDD
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray ROM drive by LiteOn
Case: Techsolo TC-2200 with 350W PSU
TV-Tuner Card: Technotrend TT-Budget S2-4100

Is this rig powerful enough for my needs? I got some HD material in 1080p
Can I do all this with XBMC?

[igot6strings]

I ordered the same board myself. Can't wait for it to get here.
From what I understand the board now supports DDR3-1333. You may want to up your ram. I'm sure the price difference is just mere pennies.
Your power supply may be over kill but it won't hurt none.

In my thread someone posted a link to a few Foxconn boxes that are around $105 with the same board and psu included. Might save you a few dollars there.
Foxconn Barebones #1
and another
Foxconn Barebones #2

[Lordadmiral]

Availability of these around here ain't that good. Also, I want a case that fits with my hifi-system components

[igot6strings]

What you have is a nice setup though. The case is very nice. My brother wants me to build him a box soon and that just may be the case I suggest for him. His budget won't be as tight as mine so a nice case is something I can blow some of his money on.

Any issues you run into will probably be similar to any issues I run into since we have the same board. I'll keep an eye out for your posts and maybe we can help each other down the road if needed.

Good luck with your new htpc.

[bluray]

Mainboard: Asus E35M1-M Pro with AMD E-350 APU
Graphics: integrated AMD Radeon HD6310

Would as well go for this "ASUS E45M1-I DELUXE AMD E-450 APU"......you'll get better core and iGPU.....

[Lordadmiral]

The performance improvement is only minimal but the E-450 board costs almost 50% more so I think I'll stick with the E-350.
What about BluRay Disc playback. Can xbmc do that under Win7 ?

@igot6strings: I'll keep you posted